Professor James Garden (Figure 1) is Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery and Head of the Department of Surgery in the School of Clinical Sciences and Community Health at the University of Edinburgh. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh (1977) and trained in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Paris in hepatobiliary, pancreatic and liver transplantation surgery. He undertook the first successful liver transplant in Edinburgh in 1992 and the Scottish Liver Transplant Programme has now grown to incorporate kidney, solid pancreas and islet cell transplantation. As a specialist hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon over the last 22 years at the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh, his interests have extended from laparoscopic cholecystectomy to liver transplantation and are currently in the management of benign and malignant disease of the liver and bile ducts including the surgical treatment of complex bile duct injuries.